Katie Simpson bought frozen pizzas about five times in the past year, including a California Pizza Kitchen Personal Pizza Barbeque Chicken and the same maker's Crispy Thin Crust Pizza Signature Pepperoni.

But when she learned they contained trans fat--an ingredient linked to heart disease, diabetes and cancer--she felt as if she were sold poison.

That's the argument being made in a $5 million federal class-action lawsuit that claims Nestle--makers of DiGiorno, Stouffer's and California Pizza Kitchen frozen pizzas --is "placing profits over public health" by failing to remove trans fat.

When she LEARNED they contained trans fat? I mean, was this a closely guarded secret? Or, wait...

The article reads:

The suit targets partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, or PHVO, which it says is the main source of trans fat in the American diet and "used in dangerous quantities in the Nestle Trans Fat Pizzas."

"Partially hydrogenated vegetable oil" is a thing you see on the ingredients lists of products.

Might this have been -- dare I say it? -- on the INGREDIENTS LIST printed on the package?

My mom decided that all sorts of things other people ate were unhealthy. So, she did this amazing thing -- read the ingredients list on products and bought a lot of the foods we ate at the health food store.

Yes, personal responsibility. That's what people use to have before they just closed their eyes, bought a product and then sued the fuck out of the company that produced it.

Oh, and hilariously, Katie Simpson apparently has no problem feeding her kids the flour that causes their blood sugar to rise and that cardiologist William Davis, in Wheat Belly, shows leads to numerous health detriments.

In 1968, Hostess Twinkies were fun to eat. The filling was fully sealed in a neatly-formed cake; the pieces were packed side-by-side in the plastic wrapper, with their pan-bottom surfaces placed squarely on the thick, clean plate of waxed white cardboard at the rear— The rounded, breastlike pastry tops offered an ancient and appetizing promise as you approached the package.

And they tasted good. I don't know what was in them... The pheromones of athletic Tutsi girls a week before menarche, cane sugar, pharmaceutical heroin, something... The Tears of Baby Jesus watching Love Story for the first time at the newfangled multiplex.

> Kids these days won't ever know.

Posted by: Crid [CridComment at gmail]
at February 2, 2013 12:17 PM

Twinkies, back then were magic. My mother, of course, would have sooner allowed us to lick drain cleaner, so whenever I saw the opportunity to eat one, I did. I'm glad for every one I ate.

During that time, racially oriented arguments about rape and other violence, and social effects more so than physical health concerns, came to shape the discussion.

Posted by: Crid [CridComment at gmail]
at February 2, 2013 1:08 PM

I think lawsuits like this always beg the question, is there actually a way to reform our civil proceedings to prevent stupidity like this without accidentally crushing the worthwhile cases?

Rather than simply getting angry is there anyone who's actually doing work on this?

Just curious.

Posted by: Andrew
at February 2, 2013 2:00 PM

Yes, at least to some extent.. Ted Franks Center for Class Action Fairness intervenes in cases where the message ney goes to the lawyers, and and the actual class gets coupons.

Lots of these cases are actually instigated by lawyers. They pay one plaintiff a few thousand dollars to get the ball rolling, but it's the lawyers who intend to collect millions. I very much suspect that in this case...

Posted by: a_random_guy
at February 2, 2013 2:34 PM

Yes, at least to some extent.. Ted Franks Center for Class Action Fairness intervenes in cases where the message ney goes to the lawyers, and and the actual class gets coupons.

Lots of these cases are actually instigated by lawyers. They pay one plaintiff a few thousand dollars to get the ball rolling, but it's the lawyers who intend to collect millions. I very much suspect that in this case...

Posted by: a_random_guy
at February 2, 2013 2:35 PM

I volunteered to be the plaintiff for Ted (one of two) in the abusive Costco gas case where the "class" got ZERO money and the lawyers for the class made out. I did this because I despise what I call "The business of abuse," but I found it especially cool that I could say (and did in a documentary that will probably never see the light of day) that I love Costco, and probably lost maybe one penny or something through the miscalc on gas and heat since I drive a hybrid Honda Insight that gets beaucoup MPG. (I spent $93 on gas in 2011 -- in ALL of 2011.)

"I volunteered to be the plaintiff for Ted (one of two) in the abusive Costco gas case where the "class" got ZERO money and the lawyers for the class made out. I did this because I despise what I call "The business of abuse," but I found it especially cool that I could say (and did in a documentary that will probably never see the light of day) that I love Costco, and probably lost maybe one penny or something through the miscalc on gas and heat since I drive a hybrid Honda Insight that gets beaucoup MPG. (I spent $93 on gas in 2011 -- in ALL of 2011.)"

Wow.

Costco was blameless, and so were the lawyers, because you don't drive.

Meanwhile, manufacturing the battery in your Insight cost more, in real dollars, than you'd have spent rescuing some retired lady's '98 Buick Regal, and the enviromental impact was far larger.

Posted by: Radwaste
at February 3, 2013 6:16 AM

There's pizza and there's pizza. If you are concerned about ingredients, its not hard to make it at home with all natural non-trans fats.

Posted by: NicoleK
at February 3, 2013 10:20 AM

NO! Don't bring back the Oreo lard! Don't doom me to Hydrox!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: NicoleK
at February 3, 2013 10:22 AM

Vegetarian and Kosher kids know what I am talking about.

Posted by: NicoleK
at February 3, 2013 10:22 AM

Hydrox tasted better. Don't fuck with me.

Posted by: Crid [CridComment at gmail]
at February 3, 2013 10:34 AM

I concede that it's only now —as you mention it 45(?) years later— that I recognize where the name came from. Even at the time, it seemed kinda science-y for a budget taste treat.

They must have amp'ed up the sugar or something. They really did seem more fun to eat than oreos.

Wiki---

Woooooooee! Hydrox are ancient, older than Oreos! I thought they came to the world during the Johnson administration.